Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen has introduced plenty of characters who make spectacularly poor life choices, but few have been as gloriously self-destructive as Freddy Horniman. Played by Daniel Ings, the perpetually chaotic aristocrat spent two seasons making his younger brother Eddie's life a living nightmare while finding ever more creative ways to sabotage his own. Now, Ings has confirmed that Freddy's wild ride is officially over.
In a recent interview with HATC Magazine, Ings revealed he won't be returning for the show's third season on Netflix. The actor, who starred opposite Theo James as the reluctant crime lord Eddie, said he feels the character got a proper conclusion after a significant rework in Season 2.
"I'm not in the next one. So that's a fun sense of closure. I kind of see it as closure for the character in a way; it just ends as this wild, broken, crazy, you know. I don't know, probably mumbling into the ether somewhere in the British countryside," Ings shared.
Ings also opened up about why Freddy's arc shifted so dramatically in the second season. According to the actor, Ritchie wanted to dial back the broad comedy that defined the first season and push the story into more dramatic territory. On his first day of filming Season 2, Ritchie sat him down and told him they'd "gone too far with the humour" and needed to pull it back.
"It was a lot of fun. Really, it was a great experience. I'll always be grateful to have played a part in creating that character. I absolutely loved playing Freddy. When that storyline was presented to me for series two, he was written almost as a completely different character," Ings explained.
The actor also shed light on Ritchie's unconventional creative process, which often involved tossing out scripts at the last minute and encouraging improvisation. That meant the cast had to stay on their toes, constantly adapting to new pages and shifting storylines while maintaining the complicated brotherly dynamic at the heart of the show.
"In a way, that character really went on a big old journey, and the way that Guy Ritchie works is that he kind of throws the script out on the morning, and so you're really putting a lot of yourselves as performers into those characters and helping build the momentum of a scene, ad-libbing and improvising and all this kind of stuff. Or he'll rewrite the script and give you brand new pages," Ings said.
That ever-changing approach made it tough to keep the characters consistent, especially as different directors took over episodes. Ings noted that he and Theo James had to carefully track the brothers' conflict through all the evolving plotlines, which was both a challenge and a learning experience.
Despite the chaos, Ings believes Freddy's exit came at the right time. "It was a fun way to kind of cap off the character. You don't want to keep playing the same game with the audience of this guy kind of comedically messing things up for them. So it was an interesting challenge to take him in a different direction at the end. I thought it was fun," he said.
While fans may be sad to see Freddy go, his departure opens up new possibilities for Season 3. For more on the show's future, check out our coverage of other upcoming adaptations and Freddy Krueger's Fortnite invasion.
